


Ride For Ride

by Semmi (semirose)



Category: Doctor Who (2005), How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 20:50:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/semirose/pseuds/Semmi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astrid stumbles across something interesting while exploring and being introspective about her life post-movie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ride For Ride

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ineptshieldmaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineptshieldmaid/gifts).



A year. It had been a year since Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III had managed to completely destroy how their town had worked for generations and they were still struggling to figure out just how everything worked now.

There were more and less jobs in the village. Amazing how quickly work was cut down once buildings stopped burning down every week and life wasn’t disrupted by an all night battle. They’d managed to find oh so many uses for dragons from travel to hauling to patrolling (not that there was much to patrol for in there remote corner of the world), but the one thing they’d decided on was not to bring them into battle. Dragons were for use in and around Berk, travel to foreign lands and rival towns strictly forbidden.

Unfortunately, this change in their society had left her…purposeless.

Berk was a very strange town, but it didn’t mean they weren’t still Vikings with Viking ideals. And part of that meant that while as a girl Astrid was allowed to fight the dragon menace since it was an attack against home, it also meant that she wasn’t allowed to _leave_ home. No raids, no expeditions, no purpose.

Oh sure there was still dragon training, riding in formation, working with the dragons, but really other than the thrill of being up in the clouds, riding dragons and working with dragons just didn’t do it for her. It was great yeah, but it didn’t feel meaningful and she wasn’t the best and it just seemed like everything in her life was stagnating.

There was another change to Berk that was driving her insane too, especially her role in the whole thing. Tourism.

They were still working out the kinks, but as an added revenue string to the not exactly reliable raiding, they’d opened up Berk to limited visitors to gawk at the dragons and take them up on a ride and somehow, probably her sparkling personality, Astrid had been drafted as the welcome wagon. And because she was a good citizen, she did it. And hated it.

She couldn’t begrudge Hiccup his sudden rise to popularity and importance in the town, he was in the center of everything, helping to make laws and restructure their economy and create new inventions that increased productivity and he was loving every second of it. Good for him. Boring for her.

It wasn’t just fighting dragons that she loved, it was helping out the town, it was the thrill of not knowing what was going to happen next, it was knowing that no matter what the end result was, she was doing _something_. Also, being fantastic at it helped. There weren’t any traditional female roles that she was good at but that didn’t matter as long as every able body was needed.

So she went to training. And she showed groups of strangers around and gave them rides on whichever dragon she was riding at the moment and made sure they paid in full for all services rendered. And then she wandered off. Exploring like Hiccup always had when he was feeling useless in town and oh how the tides changed there.

That was how she came across the box. A big blue box.

And how she ended up watching three people walk out of it none of them dressed in any fashion she’d seen. The red headed girl in the shortest trousers she’d ever seen, a man wearing a vest in material she’d never seen and the other man was wearing a ribbon around his neck. Maybe he wasn’t really a man at all?

Finally some excitement! She crept closer, listening to them, watching them, completely fascinated.

“So where are the Vikings?”

“Probably not in the middle of the woods.”

“Look! I can see a Viking ship!”

“Ahh yes, how they managed to get to other places to rape and ravage them.”

Smack. “Be nice.”

“Out of all the when’s and where’s, this is what he chose?”

Astrid sighed, they weren’t that interesting. Puzzling about why they were so excited to see Vikings since it wasn’t that hard to find them and definitely strangely dressed but they were babbling about things now that she didn’t understand.

She glanced over to the box. How had they all fit in there? Where had it come from? She had to know.

Creeping closer she noticed the door was slightly ajar and taking advantage of their distraction she snuck in.

And didn’t faint. Really.

“I’m dreaming, or hallucinating,” Astrid muttered to herself.

“Or trespassing,” the bow man said coming back in.

“You left the door open.”

“Rory!” the girl admonished.

“You’re a Viking!”

“And you have on a weird vest.”

Astrid shrugged when he gave her a hurt look, “I thought we were stating the obvious.”

“Right, well I’m the Doctor, and that’s Amy and Rory and this is the TARDIS, and you are?”

“Astrid. What’s a TARDIS? What does it do? How did you all get here? Where are you from?” Suddenly Astrid had to know everything.

“Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, we travel through space and time in it, which is how we got here, and not from here.”

Astrid’s eyes lit up at the word travel. “Can I go for a ride?” So she hated when the tourists asked that, suddenly there was nothing more she wanted in the world. She also knew she had to offer something in exchange.

“I can offer a proper vest that won’t make you stick out while hunting, pants that won’t make you freeze and something to hold your head up that doesn’t make you look like a girl.”

All three of them immediately started protesting their clothing choices, so she threw in one more thing.

“Oh, and a ride on the dragon of your choice, although if you want the Night Fury you’ll have to petition Hiccup. Deadly Nadder would be easiest as he’s my main mount but I rotate quite a bit.”

Suddenly they were all staring at her.

“Did you say dragon?” Rory asked and then turned to The Doctor. “Did she say dragon?”

“She said dragon.”

“I don’t remember there being any dragons in Viking mythology.”

“I want to ride a dragon!” Amy exclaimed.

Astrid looked straight in The Doctor’s eyes. He was so the leader of this little group. “Do we have a deal?”

He met her gaze and seemed to be sizing her up and judging her.

“Why do you want a ride?”

Astrid thought for a second. The chance to go _anywhere_. To find somewhere she could be useful again. To explore. She had to have it.

“They have no use for me anymore,” was what she finally said, never breaking his gaze. He’d been playful before but now he was straight serious.

And then his face broke out into a grin. “Ride for ride,” he said sticking out his hand.

Astrid met his grin with one of her own and shook it firmly. She’d give him as many rides as she could.

**Author's Note:**

> Gyah I'm so sorry dear recipient (and anyone else who stumbles across this), this is not the story I wanted to write and probably not the one you wanted to get but I swear it's really just the introduction of a longer story of Astrid's adventures with Eleven, Rory, and Amy, it just got away from me. I hope my failure didn't ruin your yuletide!


End file.
